AMSI Director, Professor Tim Brown says urgent action is needed to set rigorous subject knowledge benchmarks in teacher qualifications, transparency of the status of Australia’s mathematically-prepared teacher workforce and retraining for those already in the classroom.

AMSI researcher Michael O’Connor warns recruitment of new teachers would have little effect without measures to strengthen the current workforce.

“It is critical any solution takes a long-term approach with focus on strengthening both new and existing teachers’ mathematical knowledge and confidence,” he said.

“AMSI released modelling last year that shows quick fixes to address out-of-field maths teaching will not be enough to address this issue.”

AMSI researcher Jan Thomas said the worsening crisis is a result of over three decades of inaction by Australian governments, both federal and state.

“This paper demonstrates the historical failures that have contributed to the current crisis in our classrooms. The number of mathematically-prepared teachers in Australian has been in decline since the 1980s. The mathematical community including AMSI has been calling for action for decades,” she said.

The Australian Council of Deans of Science (ACDS) calls on State and Federal Ministers of Education to act urgently on the concerns identified in the report, and to extend the scope of their actions to cover all disciplines involved in STEM.